I used to get repetitive strain injury/occupational overuse syndrome a lot. One of the things that has prevented reoccurences has been using software that makes me take breaks and do exercises. If I push myself and ignore the exercises, I really notice.

I also really like the advice given by these guys who call themselves the most famous physical therapists on the internet. That may not be true, but they are definitely two of the most helpful (and nerdy).

2016 was the first year I managed to get myself organised for Inktober. I decided to illustrate sayings.

After putting a few of these up with the sayings, my friend Mick said it would be better if he could guess them. So I began to put them up without captions (answers below). NB. I’ve since coloured some of the ink drawings.

Though sometimes I felt like I should have been using the time for something else (like marketing FAB Club…), it was fun to do something different. A lot of the drawings are throwaway doodles, but some are worth keeping, so it was a useful exercise.

FAB (Friends Against Bullying) Club went live on Amazon last month. Woo-hoo!

When I was planning FAB, I was going to be living in New Zealand when the book came out. I wanted to take the book around schools and libraries and book stores, as I think that is the only way to launch a children’s book by an unknown author. But (long story), we decided to stay another year in Spain, so that put a bit of a spanner in the works.

It’s not a bad place to be for another year.

Instead, I decided to do a soft launch. I’ll be promoting the book through social media and other ways online. I’d love it if you helped me.

Yes! Basket Case has it’s first showcase interview. It’s with Alex Hallatt, creator of Arctic Circle and Human Cull. Human Cull first came to my attention in 2013, when it started running on GoComics. I loved the idea of jerks being identified as such, and I’ve been an avid reader of the strip ever since. It’s a simple premise, with simple, easy to look at graphics. The punchline comes when you locate Alien Admin, and see how he’s eying his target. I’ll let Alex talk more about it below. I’m very please to introduce her here.

–B-C–

BC: Who are you (to Alex, and to Little Alien Guy)?AH: I’m (Alex) the cartoonist behind Human Cull, the web comic and Arctic Circle, the syndicated comic strip.AA: Alien Admin has been tasked with culling humans from Earth. It is being done very reasonably, as only…

My book, FAB Club, will launch on October 3rd. To coincide with that, I’m preparing some bullying help sheets, which will be available free to all newsletter subscribers (go to alexhallatt.com/FAB to subscribe).

The last chapter (12) went out to my crowd editors a couple of weeks ago. I got some enthusiastic feedback from the kids, but a couple of the adults echoed my thoughts about the ending. It all wrapped up, but it was a little flat. Two big edits later and the chapter is now working well. The book is as finished as it can be.

Now I am publishing FAB (Friends Against Bullying) Club as a serial on my web site. You can read it for free, by going to alexhallatt.com/FAB. Signing up to the mailing list gets you entry into the members’ area, where you can download previous chapters and access other club goodies.